Thursday, October 21, 2010
U.S. didn't warn India despite ‘information & concerns'
From The Hindu
The United States had “information and concerns” on the terror-related activities of the 2008 Mumbai attacks mastermind David Coleman Headley, based on communications received from his spouses. However the U.S. did not provide India with full information or a stronger warning due to a lack of “specific information.”
At a press briefing this week, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said that regarding the nature of the information provided to U.S. authorities by Headley's wives, “there was concern expressed by both spouses at the same time,” although the information “was not specific.”
He added that had the U.S. possessed specific information on Headley, it would have provided it to the Indian government beforehand. However the information received did not detail a “time or place of the attack.”
In particular, Mr. Crowley acknowledged that the U.S. law enforcement authorities held two meetings with one of Headley's spouses in late 2007 and early 2008, during which she provided information that was followed up on and relayed to the relevant agencies across the U.S. government.
Commenting on the U.S.' slow response to the information, Lisa Curtis, Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank, told The Hindu, “Many officials in the U.S. government responsible for Pakistan policy often failed in the past to understand the close links between Pakistan-based terrorist groups targeting India and those that target the West.”
Ms. Curtis said that rather than viewing the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terror outfit Headley was said to have been trained with, on par with the Al-Qaeda, U.S. officials tended to see it only through an Indo-Pakistani lens.
“Not specific”
When Mr. Crowley was asked whether the information provided by Headley's spouses did not mention that he was involved with the LeT, implying that this would have provided a clue about whether Indian targets would be involved, Mr. Crowley only repeated, “There was no specific information as to who he was associated with or what they were planning to do.”
Mr. Crowley's comments came even as reports emerged on Monday that in his statements to Indian authorities in June Headley admitted that the Pakistan spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, had been “deeply involved in planning the 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai, going so far as to fund reconnaissance missions to the Indian city.”
The Associated Press quoted a secret U.S. government report on Headley's interrogation as saying, “According to Headley, every big action of the LeT is done in close coordination with the ISI.”
Mr. Crowley said the U.S. had been pressing Pakistan to take more aggressive action inside its borders to deal with a threat that was of concern to the U.S. and the region.
In the context of the U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue in Washington this week, he added, “Clearly, this is an ongoing threat and more needs to be done. That will be among the issues talked about during this week's Strategic Dialogue.”
However with regard to the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, Ms. Curtis cautioned that legal issues could arise in the event that direct ISI links were made to the Mumbai attacks, which also killed six U.S. citizens.
She said, “From a policy perspective, there could be major blowback on the Obama administration if it is perceived as stifling information related to a terrorist incident in which U.S. citizens were murdered.”
There were also questions being raised whether the U.S. authorities had failed to follow up on terrorism leads associated with Headley “because it could potentially implicate Pakistan's intelligence service, with whom the Central Intelligence Agency is closely working,” Ms. Curtis, formerly with the CIA, said.
The United States had “information and concerns” on the terror-related activities of the 2008 Mumbai attacks mastermind David Coleman Headley, based on communications received from his spouses. However the U.S. did not provide India with full information or a stronger warning due to a lack of “specific information.”
At a press briefing this week, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said that regarding the nature of the information provided to U.S. authorities by Headley's wives, “there was concern expressed by both spouses at the same time,” although the information “was not specific.”
He added that had the U.S. possessed specific information on Headley, it would have provided it to the Indian government beforehand. However the information received did not detail a “time or place of the attack.”
In particular, Mr. Crowley acknowledged that the U.S. law enforcement authorities held two meetings with one of Headley's spouses in late 2007 and early 2008, during which she provided information that was followed up on and relayed to the relevant agencies across the U.S. government.
Commenting on the U.S.' slow response to the information, Lisa Curtis, Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank, told The Hindu, “Many officials in the U.S. government responsible for Pakistan policy often failed in the past to understand the close links between Pakistan-based terrorist groups targeting India and those that target the West.”
Ms. Curtis said that rather than viewing the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terror outfit Headley was said to have been trained with, on par with the Al-Qaeda, U.S. officials tended to see it only through an Indo-Pakistani lens.
“Not specific”
When Mr. Crowley was asked whether the information provided by Headley's spouses did not mention that he was involved with the LeT, implying that this would have provided a clue about whether Indian targets would be involved, Mr. Crowley only repeated, “There was no specific information as to who he was associated with or what they were planning to do.”
Mr. Crowley's comments came even as reports emerged on Monday that in his statements to Indian authorities in June Headley admitted that the Pakistan spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, had been “deeply involved in planning the 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai, going so far as to fund reconnaissance missions to the Indian city.”
The Associated Press quoted a secret U.S. government report on Headley's interrogation as saying, “According to Headley, every big action of the LeT is done in close coordination with the ISI.”
Mr. Crowley said the U.S. had been pressing Pakistan to take more aggressive action inside its borders to deal with a threat that was of concern to the U.S. and the region.
In the context of the U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue in Washington this week, he added, “Clearly, this is an ongoing threat and more needs to be done. That will be among the issues talked about during this week's Strategic Dialogue.”
However with regard to the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, Ms. Curtis cautioned that legal issues could arise in the event that direct ISI links were made to the Mumbai attacks, which also killed six U.S. citizens.
She said, “From a policy perspective, there could be major blowback on the Obama administration if it is perceived as stifling information related to a terrorist incident in which U.S. citizens were murdered.”
There were also questions being raised whether the U.S. authorities had failed to follow up on terrorism leads associated with Headley “because it could potentially implicate Pakistan's intelligence service, with whom the Central Intelligence Agency is closely working,” Ms. Curtis, formerly with the CIA, said.
Labels: 26/11, David Headley, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Lashkar-e-Taiba, mumbai terror
# posted by Narayan Lakshman @ 5:06 AM 
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